International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Meet the Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition!

February 11 marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, an opportunity to recognize the critical role women play in advancing research and innovation.

The Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition brings together researchers, health-care providers, community partners, and people with lived experience from across Canada.

Across the Coalition, Hub-led work is improving how research reflects real-world needs, addresses gaps and inequities and supports more responsive and inclusive health systems. By centering lived experience and knowledge mobilization, the Hubs ensure research is translated into tools, guidance, and practices that can be used in care and policy settings:

• The Alberta Sex, Gender and Women’s Health Research Hub studies the systemic exclusion and under-funding of women’s health in medical research that leads to poor health outcomes for women.
• The Alliance against Violence and Adversity (AVA) Women’s & Girls’ Health Hub delivers a national e-learning hub that gives social-service and health professionals the tools to recognize and respond to gender-based violence and childhood adversity.
• The Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance Hub is filling knowledge gaps and scaling evidence-based strategies to improve awareness, prevention, detection and management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Canadian women.
• The Women-Centred HIV Care Hub trains HIV researchers and advocates and hosts knowledge mobilization events, working to remove barriers to stigma-free and equitable HIV care.
• Addressing areas of women’s health that have long been under-recognized, the SHAPE Hub addresses critical gaps in sexual health and genito-pelvic pain disorders.
• The Healthy Pregnancy Hub shares evidence-based guidance on safe medication use during pregnancy and postpartum, critical in today’s health misinformation climate.
• The Justice and Equity in Perinatal Services (JEPS) Hub produces landmark research on the perinatal experiences of health service users across Canada that informs tools to measure factors like discrimination and stigma experienced when receiving care during pregnancy and childbirth.
• The IMPACT Hub examines the realities that incarcerated women face when pregnant, including discrimination, lack of basic services, and the inability to exercise health autonomy.
• The Inuit Perinatal Health Hub advances Inuit-led, culturally safe perinatal research and care and examines the harmful impacts of birth evacuation policies.
• The GEM Hub develops protocols for health care providers to help them recognize and respond to high-risk situations during pregnancy to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality rates, much needed in remote areas of the country.

On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, let’s celebrate the women whose leadership, expertise and collaboration continue to shape stronger evidence and better health outcomes across Canada.